Music History/Musicology Area

Professors in the area are deeply committed not only to a thorough understanding of musical syntax, but to a study of music as part of a wider social and cultural fabric. They are engaged with critical and cultural theory as well as issues of performing practices as these relate to repertory that ranges widely from Renaissance motets and madrigals to jazz and punk rock. History classes investigate various ways music can communicate meaning as well as how and why musical styles change. In teaching, great attention is paid to sound critical thinking and students are skillfully guided in this by scholars whose work has been published in books and articles on this continent and abroad.